Greetings!

It is hard to get my mind around the fact that a helpless infant, laying in an animal’s food trough is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being. However, that is at the very heart of Christmas. It is the great celebration of God making his love visible and tangible in the world. This is the mystery of the Incarnation which we are preparing to celebrate.

We, as married couples, are called to make God’s love visible in the world as well. While our marriages are imperfect, the power of the Holy Spirit transforms our ordinary marriages into images of divine love. The Holy Spirit is intimately involved in the thousands of small but real gestures of daily prayer, loving actions and conversations that make up the delightful experience of human and divine love. 

What does that look like in your marriage?

What comes to mind for me this season are the tender ways in which Adella cared for me during my recovery from yet another surgery. It is the way in which we both respond in laughter to things that would have caused hurt or anger in the past. It is filling each other’s coffee cup and filling the car with gas when we know the other has a big meeting in the morning. It is knowing that God, through and with her is deeply concerned with the smallest details of my life like a clean shirt for the next day.

The list is the evidence of the practical grace of marriage that makes our marriages a dwelling place of God, visible and attractive to the world. It is our way of participating in the wondrous mystery of the Incarnation.

Have a blessed Christmas and a Holy New Year.

 

Bill Wacker

Director, Marriage in Christ

Keep your marriage at the top of your to-do list! Download our Advent series today - fresh format, updated meditations, new conversation starters and creative suggestions to love better.

By Adella Wacker

When Bill and I host a Marriage in Christ seminar, we often say, “Act like you love each other and the feelings of love will follow the action.”

There is a lesson in that advice for the Christmas season which is always full of stress. There are so many distractions at home and pressures at work that the joy of the season can be hard to find. In the midst of all of that, I heard the Holy Spirit say to me, “Act like you are grateful and the joy of gratitude will follow.” I must confess that I “heard” this, while I was reading  One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are,  by Ann Voskamp.

 

Voskamp asks “How do we find joy in the midst of deadlines, debt, drama and daily duties? What does a life of gratitude look like when your days are gritty, long, and sometimes dark? What is God providing here and now?”

 

Her answer is very practical. Give thanks for what you have . It is a way of looking at life that requires daily practice. She focuses on finding gratitude in the most ordinary of things, days filled with laundry and kids and dishes in the sink. We find joy in the practice of gratitude.

 

So, in this very busy season, I will look for His gifts, express my gratitude with acts of thanksgiving and expect the joy to follow.

To date, 1400 couples have experienced the Holy Spirit at work in their marriage through the Marriage in Christ seminar.

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